


Pushing the River

by robots



Category: Ghost of Tsushima (Video Game)
Genre: Animal Death, Canon Compliant, Canon Concurrent, Canon-Typical Violence, Feudalism is Bad, Flashbacks, M/M, Power Imbalance, Pre-Canon, Rating to Change, unwholesome historical practices
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:54:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28258776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robots/pseuds/robots
Summary: Ryuzo doesn't have to wonder how they ever got to this point. The answer is as simple as it is damning: step by step along the road he built for them.
Relationships: Khotun Khan/Ryuzo, Ryuzo/Jin Sakai
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	Pushing the River

**Author's Note:**

> I told myself I was gonna try to keep this short.
> 
> I don't know how there's not more fic featuring Khotun and Ryuzo

Ryuzo doesn’t realize how badly he’s shaking until he almost falls climbing the ladder to the loft of the storehouse. The smell of blood and smoke and burning flesh is still thick in his nose, soaked into his clothes and skin. Ryuzo wants to rip the clothes from his body, the skin from his bones just to be rid of it. He finishes climbing the ladder with hands that refuse to grasp the rungs. 

He used to come up here as a boy, during those times he was invited by Jin on his sojourns to his uncle's castle. But there had not been much in particular for the son of a commoner to do during the days while Jin was attending lessons or court, learning all the duties and skills a little lord must. The first couple times he'd been left alone Ryuzo had gotten annoyed and left the castle grounds to fish, or to ride along the barren hills to the north, until the time when he came back and the guards did not recognize him and would not let a dirty peasant boy past. 

He had spent a cold night sleeping outside the gates on the wrong side of the mountain, wondering if Jin had even realized he was missing, and who would tell his mother he had frozen to death right outside the castle because no one would believe he belonged there.  
Of course when morning came Ryuzo had been stiff and sick but alive, woken by the pounding hoofbeats of half a dozen horses riding out. It had been Jin, along with a few of his uncle's kashindan, heading out to mount a search and rescue or some nonsense. When Jin saw Ryuzo there, tired and cold but otherwise unharmed he nearly fell from his horse he dismounted so fast, and ran up and embraced him right there in front of everyone. It had been embarrassing, but Ryuzo mostly remembers how unfair it had seemed.  
Jin had started crying right away like he always did back then, so Ryuzo didn't even get the chance to be properly angry with him. He just rolled his eyes and listened to Jin tell him tearfully how he'd been worried all night when Ryuzo hadn't come back. Ryuzo had wanted to shake him and demand that Jin tell all the guards who he was, or else stop being selfish by inviting him here when there was nothing for him to do. Instead he let Jin grab his hand and lead him back to the castle, eyes glued to the ground, aware of the Jitō's kashindan all around and aware in a way he had never been before that they were probably too old to keep clinging to each other like that.

So Ryuzo had spent the next few visits learning all the best places in the castle to hide and take naps. The quartermaster had taken one look at the way he was dressed and decided he could boss him around as he pleased, so it was best for Ryuzo to disappear. As the weather grew warm he also spent time learning which of the servant girls would turn their noses up at him, and which would laugh with him instead of at him.  
It wasn't until the following summer Lord Sakai finally agreed to let Ryuzo train alongside his retainers. He had known even then that it was due to Jin's insistence that he be trained at all, and it was something Ryuzo never quite forgave him for. That Ryuzo should owe Jin more than he would ever be able to repay before either of them had seen fourteen summers was cruel in ways he hadn't even realized at the time.

There are other memories here too, warmer ones involving being with Jin away from prying eyes, but he can't let himself think about that now.

Now, Ryuzo wedges himself behind a barrel in the loft he used to hide and daydream in as a child and lifts the skin of airag he’d grabbed from a supply cart to his mouth, tearing out the stopper with his teeth. He doesn’t stop drinking until the skin is light in his hand. It does little, too little, not nearly enough to numb him. Every time he closes his eyes he is blinded by flame, he can hear the sound of the man's screams dying in his throat as his lungs were cooked with every inhale.  
Ryuzo has killed many times, often without thinking and usually without remorse, but never like that.  


When he had drawn his sword against Jin he had thought at the time that had been the point of no return. But even after he'd defeated him Jin had begged him to reconsider, had tried to appeal to the man he still thought Ryuzo was.

After what he'd just done Ryuzo now knows that the man Jin thought he was is dead. He might never have existed. 

Bile rises in the back of Ryuzo's throat. He's not sure if it's the sour taste of the airag, or the smell of cooked flesh that still clings to him. He tosses the empty skin over the edge of the loft, doesn't realize someone's standing down there until he nearly hits them with it.

"Khööye!" 

Ryuzo starts, cursing himself for letting someone see him sneak off. He rolls over to peer over the edge. One of Khotun's officers, ornately dressed in marine and silver, glares up at him. Ryuzo had been told his name, he's sure, but damn him if he can remember it.

"What do you want?" He barks, resenting the disturbance.

The man pauses, probably searching for the right words. Most of the Mongols know very little if any Japanese, but the officers know more. They're hardly fluent though, not like the Khan. Speaking of-

"You come to castle. Now. Khan's orders."

Ryuzo should ask why, but he doesn't. He knows he won't get any answer better than 'Khan's orders.' 

The man waits for Ryuzo to come down from the loft. Then, probably assured he'd completed his task to the letter, he snatches up the nearly empty skin of airag and leaves.

Ryuzo sways on his feet, feeling the last two days of non-stop marching catching up to him. But he can't rest, evidently he still had a job to do. He's frozen with dread for a moment, wondering what the Khan will ask of him now. He's already changed the terms on feeding the Straw Hats once, he may do it again. And Ryuzo already knows that no matter what it is, he will do it. Or at least he hopes he will. He hasn't come this far, done this much for his men only to let them starve or be slaughtered now. If he turned his back on them now, everything he's done would be for nothing. 

Ryuzo moves to straighten his hat, forgetting once again he has been without it for two days, and just smooths his hair back out of his face instead. There's no time to put himself together, and honestly it feels disingenuous to try.

He observes that the Mongols have wasted little time getting set up. Already their yurts litter the ancient courtyards and gardens, there is shouting and the braying of the animals they travel with. There is a small commotion in the yard beyond the servant’s quarters. The Mongols are gathering up the staff that was left here, to see which are fit to keep and which they will have to cull. Anyone who resists will face the sword. Ryuzo hopes that most of them will obey. It’s mostly women and children left. The only men who’d been left to defend the castle were either too young to fight at Komoda, or too old and sickly.  
The shouting gets louder and one of the Mongols is shoved by a boy who looks to be only about a spring away from his coming of age.

Ryuzo sees the glint of the blade before he averts his gaze, followed by a scream. He refocuses his attention on the steps up to the central keep. Let them decide for themselves if they want to die, and how. 

Ryuzo is surprised to find the Khan on the first floor, not in the Jitō's personal quarters. This was a space given to formal gatherings and audiences. It looks as if he's already had his men ransack the place. Everything of value has been gathered here for the Khan's perusal. Ryuzo recognizes most of it. Fine vases and art, a gilded tea set, a few sets of generations-old armor. The Khan is currently brandishing a sword of the old style, one Ryuzo knows has been passed down through the Shimura clan since before they were technically a clan.

Ryuzo clears his throat to make his presence known. Khotun glances at him, but doesn't deviate from his current task.

The Khan passes through a few stances with the sword, flourishing it expertly. Japanese swords are ill-suited to the Mongol style of fighting, but Khotun of course would never let that get in his way. He's not just a murderous brute, he's a well-trained, well-educated murderous brute. When he’s finished he turns to Ryuzo, sword rested across his wide palms like he’s testing the balance. His intense features are open with curiosity and amusement at his new toy.

“I like the newer ones better. They are faster, better for fighting on the ground. You can kill more men, more quickly. With the right training."

The Khan's eyes suddenly harden, and Ryuzo is unable to brace himself for what happens next.

In an instant Khotun passes one hand over the other, flipping the sword into his grip once again. Ryuzo doesn't even have time to flinch before the tip of the blade is leveled against his throat. His mind and heart start racing. He could spin out of Khotun's range, draw fast enough to parry any blows away from his flank. Giving ground would be dangerous with the stairs at his back. That's if he's able to finish his draw at all. With the injuries he'd received in his fight with Jin, it seems unlikely that he'd make it far enough to have to worry about stairs.

Ryuzo is frozen, unable to decide what to do. He doesn't know what he's done to piss the Khan off. He'd earned his men their food, had thought he'd earned a moment of reprieve for himself.

Then the Khan's demeanor shifts, and he looks amused, smiling in a way that does not reach his eyes. 

"You did not tell me you used to live here." He's still smiling, but Ryuzo feels the threat. He tries not to swallow. "There is a lot you haven't been telling me." The arm holding the sword twitches, and Ryuzo can't help it, he flinches. Khotun merely taps the flat of the blade against his turned cheek, then withdraws, sword now hanging loosely at his side, no more dangerous than the other weapons he carries. Ryuzo allows himself to breathe. "You shouldn't be so shy about these things. After all, you are the one who got in bed with us."

"It didn't really seem relevant. If it's honesty you want I never actually lived here. Just visited. From what you told me you already knew this place backwards and forwards from your spies." He doesn't know how Khotun might use the knowledge of his past against him, but Ryuzo has spent the time since they'd met trying to feel out what type of man the Khan fancies himself to be, and knows whatever he is, the Khan is smart enough to know all the shapes the reigns he holds might take. "Don't tell me anything I would have said would have changed your plans. It might effect my ego."

Khotun laughs, though it's more like a bark and Ryuzo doesn't feel any more at ease because of it.

"You're right. I knew everything I needed to know about this fortress before I ever set foot on this island. Do you know why that is?"

Ryuzo can guess, based on their few past conversations and what he's overheard the Khan say to that monk he keeps seeing skulking around with his scrolls, what it is he's supposed to say.  
"Because learning about us was the best way to defeat us."

Khotun grunts in affirmation. "It is information that wins wars. More than men or weapons. Information. How your enemy thinks, his weaknesses, what is and is not acceptable to him. Where he sleeps, how he eats, how he decides who he will follow and who it is that does the following, and who the leading. So you see Ryuzo," He picks up the _saya_ from the low table where most of the various treasures have been laid, and returns the blade to its home, "Why I might be disappointed to learn that there is any information you are not sharing with me." Then he slides the whole kit into his belts.

"Ask me whatever you like." He gives a small bow, keeping his eyes down to hide the way his temper flares at the scolding. "I have no reason to lie to you." There would be no point in it, he thinks, other than to risk getting caught doing it. There is nothing lying about his time in this place would protect. Nothing, he thinks bitterly, that he hasn't already lost 

"I'm sure you think that's true." The Khan says. Something about him makes it seem like he's looking down at Ryzuo, despite actually being the shorter man. It was something particular to those with power who were used to having it. Lord Shimura had had it, even Jin had finally developed it three years ago, when it had been too late for Ryuzo to take notice. "One of the servants recognized you, in case you're curious." 

Who was it that had recognized him, he wondered, and would he recognize them in return? Would they even survive until morning? "As I said, I used to visit here when I was younger. I'd be surprised if he was the only one who knew me." He'd spent enough time here. More likely, whoever had recognized him was the only one who'd gotten close enough to see his face.

They're sliding this way and that around the actual topic of the conversation. What the Khan actually wants to know about. Jin. The Khan must have picked up that they knew each other more than just in passing.

"A guest at the castle who personally knows the Jitō's nephew, yet who spent time amongst the servants. Sounds like an interesting story." Ryuzo must be at least a little drunk, because he sounds at least partly genuine, observing Ryuzo intently as if waiting for a signal of some kind. It makes him exceedingly nervous, like the Khan might be able to read his entire history just from the way he answers. 

"Trust me, it's less interesting than it may seem." Ryuzo responds. He tries to keep himself schooled. If the Khan recognizes the weak spot he'll sink his teeth in.

"I'll decide that." He replies. A long silence passes between them then. The Khan's eyes never leave Ryuzo, and exhaustion makes him want to shrink under the weight of that gaze. He's reminded of when he'd been young and one of the farm cats had found an injured crow. It took the cat hours to finally kill it, and by the end the crow's calls were so horrible that Ryuzo had nightmares for days afterward. He wonders how long until the Khan puts him out of his misery. The Khan breaks the silence before Ryuzo can worry about it overmuch with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Later though. For now go see that your men are fed. See how your obedience has been rewarded."

Ryuzo clenches his jaw but manages to keep from saying anything, just bows again and does not notice the cold sweat slicking his back until the wind hits him as he steps back outside into the night.

**Author's Note:**

> Airag apparently has a very low ABV lol


End file.
